As medical technologies advance, our average life becomes increasingly longer, and ageing population tends to increase substantially. To cope with the required medical technology and social security system caused by the ageing population, a variety of medical teams, academic circles and related manufacturers are actively conducting researches, developments and promotions to establish healthcare systems to overcome various healthcare problems of elderly people and patients.
In general, elderly people have difficulty moving around and respond less promptly than they were young; consequently, elderly people usually need other's help on daily routines. For example, when elderly patients have urinary incontinence problem, they generally have to wear diapers so as to avoid their pants and bed sheets from being wetted easily by their urine, and most of them have to change their diapers frequently. However, due to limited mobile abilities, it is a hassle for the elderly people to change their own diapers. Actions such as undressing and re-dressing themselves before and after changing diapers require the elderly people to shift the center of gravity of their bodies. During the aforementioned process, the elderly person has to hold on an object (such as a table or a wall) to maintain balance. Undoubtedly, it is a dangerous task for the elderly people to change their own diapers, however, in the current society, double-income families are becoming very popular, couples are working and unable to take care of the elderly people in their families at home all the time, and thus increasingly more elderly people choose to live in a nursing home or a nursing center in order to get helps from nurses or care givers.
Since the nurses or care givers at nursing homes and/or care facilities have to go through professional trainings and be licensed in order to execute the associated nursing care works, increased expenses and insufficient care givers are always the problems many nursing homes and care facilities face today. Furthermore, in many nursing homes and care facilities, care givers are generally responsible for taking care of the daily living and hygiene of several patients (such as elderly people or mid to severe bedridden patients); therefore, the care givers are unable to accompany the elderly patients at all the time; resulting in infrequent change of diapers. If patients get illed (such as having a stroke or a psychoneurotic disorder), they may be unclear in speaking, unconscious or slow in response and unable to immediately notify the care givers to change their diapers, and other conditions (such as diaper rash or skin infection, etc) may occur easily if their diapers have not been changed for a long time, so that the patients will feel uncomfortable. To overcome the aforementioned problems, nursing homes and care facilities usually adopt a bedridden care system with a remote transmission function, such that when a patient needs assistance, the system can notify the care givers immediately. For instance, the nurse will install a sensor (such as a humidity sensor) at the patient's diaper first, and the sensor will transmit a detection signal to the care giver's computer through a wireless network, so that the care giver can learn about the patient's current conditions (such as having a wet diaper) and take necessary action (such as changing the diaper) immediately and effectively improve the patient's personal hygiene and comfort.
However, the currently existing bedridden care systems still have the following drawbacks. Firstly, most systems today only issue a warning whenever the computer receives an abnormal detection signal (such as a high humidity) transmitted from the sensor. If the nurse has not installed the sensor properly, or the sensor is malfunctioned, the sensor will be unable to provide a correct detection signal, and the computer will not provide the accurate information. As a result, the care givers will be unable to provide necessary assistance or immediate action to the elderly people or patients. In addition, since care givers are generally loaded with works and have different level of work ethics, they may not take necessary caring action (such as changing a diaper) immediately and properly after the computer has received the detection signal. If the care giver ignores the warning or is taking care of others, or turns off the sensor and wait for a period of time before changing the diaper for the elderly people or patients, the computer will not receive the correct information. If the patient is unable to express her/his conditions clearly or is unconscious, it will create many health problems and raise the issue of nursing negligence.
Therefore, it is an important subject for related manufacturers and nursing homes and care facilities to design products to assure that different situations can be detected to allow patients to receive timely care.